News
SEA CHANGE FOR APARTMENTS
March 8, 2012
| Village Green Cos chairman Jonathan Holtzman says the for-sale housing market will improve in the next few years and some renters will want to be owners—but he's not worried about the health of the apartment market. (He knows that the apartment market has a balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, and aggressive investors.) | ||
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| Jonathan's coming to Chicago on March 13 (next week—it's sneaking up on us, register here) to be part of the Bisnow Multifamily Summit. Above, he's offering his thoughts during the grand opening of the company's Detroit City Apartments last year in Detroit's CBD, near Comerica Park and Ford Field. As the US economy improves, Jonathan tells us that some renters will move into ownership. The move isn't going to be a rush—renting has emerged from the recession as more than just a way-station before owning, but a viable long-term option for many individuals and families. | ||
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| In early March, Bisnow dropped in on Village Green's most recent downtown Chicago project—Randolph Tower City Apartments, which just started tenant move-ins. We thought the lobby, above, had some snap to it. The 45-story, landmark structure dates from the late 1920s, and Village Green has redeveloped it into more than 300 apartments. Downtown Chicago is just the place for such a property to succeed, Jonathan explains, because there's long been a base of young professionals there looking for stylish digs, and now Chicago businesses are beginning to hire (and rehire) more of those young pros. | ||
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| Ed Ryder, director of acquisitions at Pearlmark Real Estate Partners, will also be joining Bisnow at the event. Ed tells us a few multifamily markets are experiencing excessive pricing because of fits of "irrational exuberance" among apartment investors these days (to use a turn of phrase once favored by Alan Greenspan). It's the result of a tremendous amount of capital focusing like a cruise missile (Ed's turn of phrase) on Class-A properties in major coastal locations. He points out that there are still reasonably priced properties available in less glamorous markets that will offer savvy investors decent long-term returns: think Tampa, parts of Phoenix, and no doubt a few other places he wants to keep to himself. |
